Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

So everyone and their brother has these absurd and overly dramatic 9-11 remembrance things going on. If they’d take that concern and effort about the past and focus it on the future maybe next time (and, trust me, theres gonna be a next time..several of them, in fact…) things will work out differently.

What has changed for the Zero since 9-11? Interestingly, my own government , which had been relatively benign, suddenly Orwell’ed on me and came up with indefinite detentions, secret courts (and thats a BIG roadsign), ‘heightened’ powers and the siren-call of “If you are innocent, you shouldnt mind”. Stock up on .223, bottled water and ‘questionable books’ and you get tagged as someone worth investigating…and ten years ago theyd write you off as no one..just some loony in a tinfoil hat and a couple cases of SPAM waiting for the Soviets to invade. But now…now its another ball of wax….

You know, when you look at your bookshelf and think ‘gee, I should get rid of some of those books in case someone sees them and starts to think I’m a [terrorist/insurgent/whatever]’ then society has really become something out of the Central Committee’s handbook. Think about it..you have to worry about what you read…how utterly unAmerican is that?

But, whats that got to do with Cmdr. Zero? Well, part of being the Zero is reading…and I mean *alot* of reading…and some books could be considered ‘inflammatory’ or ’suspicious’.

Never thought Id ever need to think about hiding books.

So, anyway, its the second year since a buncha idiots pulled a one-in-a-million stunt with spectacular results. How do I ‘commemorate’ it? By lamenting that their activities are forcing my legal and legitimate activities ‘underground’.

This happened a efw years back…some family in VA/DC was reported to the feds as possible terrorists. The feds came with their usual overkill of SWAT teams and whatnot. The place was searched, masked gunmen (hey, just like your average South American death squad!) crouched in the shrubs, and the family was questioned at length. Their hideously flagrant threat to America’s well-being? They had a dozen plastic blue barrels that they bought to store water in against Y2k. Yup..thats it. Some neighbor saw these barrels and thought of the Oklahoma City bombing and dropped a dime on their simple neighbors.

I guess the upshot is that I need to look a little less…interesting…should someone wind up viewing my library, basement or gun cabinet.